Annexes National Early Warning System: Sri Lanka a Participatory Concept Paper for the Design of an Effective All-Hazard Public Warning System
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Annexes National Early Warning System: Sri Lanka A Participatory Concept Paper for the Design of an Effective All-Hazard Public Warning System Annex 1: Consolidated input from Consultation Processes .......... A1 Annex 2: List of Consulted Persons ............................................... A21 Annex 3: Agendas- Consultation meetings.................................... A28 Annex 4: News Releases, Selected Media Coverage and Web Coverage ........................................................................... A31 Annex 5: Qualifications of International Expert and Leader of Sri Lanka Team....................................................................... A39 Annex 6: Timeline of events, 26 December 2004 ........................... A45 Annex 7: Sinhala and Tamil Translations of Interim Report Executive Summary ......................................................... A50 Annex 8: Sarvodaya Network .......................................................... A55 Annex 9: Dam Safety Issues............................................................ A56 Annex 10: Summary Statistics of Tsunami Impact.......................... A57 Annex 1 Annex 1: Consolidated input from Consultation Processes 1. Expert Consultation, January 26 2005, 3-7pm; Taj Samudra, (Colombo, Sri Lanka) 2. Video-Press Conference, February 10th 2005, 10am-12pm, Distance Learning Center (Sri Lanka), Simon Fraser University (Canada), University of Hawai’i at Hilo (USA) 3. Web discussion, www.lirneasia.net, 1 January-20 February 2005 4. Audience input from meeting organized by Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, February 17th 2005, 4:30-6:00 pm, Chamber of Commerce Auditorium, (Colombo, Sri Lanka) 5. Written comments, received 27 January-19 February 2005 Comment/Suggestion and Source Response Explanation Governance Ownership/Leadership System has to be resilient to government Accepted change. Luxman Siriwardena, Director, External Relations – LIRNEasia Need to ensure plans do not get put aside (as Accepted in the past); People should hold government accountable Mitra Ariyasinghe, Retired Snr DIG Credibility Credibility must be built into institutions, to Accepted avoid false warnings, and to ensure that people take warnings seriously, and react rapidly. Vajira Premawardhana, Finance Expert Dr. S.P.F Senaratne, Consultant Anthropologist Dr. Buddhi Weerasinghe, Formerly with Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre Means of authentication must be available for Accepted people to verify warning. Chamal de Silva It is not enough to say that false alarms are a Partially How and whether the political issue and that politicians need to make accepted; respondents at the the decision. Culture of awareness must be some parts community level react to a developed in parallel to enable people to outside the warning is beyond the scope understand warnings and decide what actions scope of of the early warning system to take for themselves present as conceptualized. The Earl Kessler, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center activity Vanguard Foundation hopes to work on this aspect in future. There should also be certain ethical protection Outside the No one can guarantee from media and other pressure groups in the scope of protection from media event of forecast becoming wrong so that the present criticism. This is a feature of credibility of the warning system is not activity public service. tarnished, unnecessarily. Nishantha Kamaladasa, Director: Center for Housing Planning and Building Concept Paper Annexes: NEWS:SL A1 Annex 1 Central authority is needed to issue warning in Accepted order to ensure credibility Upali Mallawaarachchi Consultant engineer: ADB Projects Division, Road Development Authority System should be kept non-political to get buy- Accepted in of people Mitra Ariyasinghe, Retired Snr DIG Accountability National hazard warning system should be Partially The government is the only provided entirely by the private sector: Private accepted entity that can and should sector is capable and can be motivated take the ultimate through profits; Government is incapable of responsibility of making the providing and lacks stronger motive than ‘final call.’ Private sector will ‘altruism’ and should be excluded. At the most not want to do this, and government can provide a legal umbrella under people may not see such an which non government actors can do the job. entity as an ‘authoritative’ Luxman Siriwardena, Director, External Relations – source of warning. The LIRNEasia mechanisms and functioning of the system can be taken on by private/civil sectors, but government must take ultimate responsibility. System has to come from government, while Partially System should be a appreciating the role of NGOs accepted partnership between the Geethi Karunaratne, Consultant government and other public (including NGOs) and private entities Need a good piece of legislation that cuts Outside the The government’s 2005 across all relevant subject areas affected by scope of February urgent bill on hazards present disaster management may Dr. Buddhi Weerasinghe, Formerly with Asian Disaster activity be a response; it does not Preparedness Centre deal with warnings. A single institutional mechanism may not be Partially Agree on value of keeping applicable to all disaster situations. Those accepted hazard detection and which are local in nature need to have local monitoring with experts and mechanisms. Each type of disaster should be separate. There are taken separately, with separate mechanisms considerable economies of for detection, vulnerability assessment and scope in locating the warning dissemination. management of disaster Nishantha Kamaladasa, Director: Center for Housing warning system within a Planning and Building single institutional mechanism. The fragmentation of warning lends itself to problems of accountability and credibility. System needs to be capable of handling all Accepted kinds of disasters: natural, man made (multi- hazard approach) Hilru Siddeeque, Consultant/Director: Citigardens P.Karunaratne, Tamil Municipal Council Vajira Premawardhana, finance expert Dams are solely owned by government but Outside the This report cannot get into responsibility for safety is vested with scope. the level of detail that is Concept Paper Annexes: NEWS:SL A2 Annex 1 operators. Financial allocation for Partially required to solve . The maintenance/management is handled by accepted particular area of dam safety different groups within the government; the however, will be dealt with in government increasingly fails to provide a different activity to be adequate funds for dam maintenance and carried out by LIRNEasia safety; no legislation is available for operational and the Vanguard procedures; warning systems are not available. Foundation Badra Kamaladasa, Dept of Irrigation Disaster warning system should be part of Partially Appointments have to go broader national disaster management accepted beyond the regular organization; should be institutionalized (e.g. parliamentary appointment Securities and Exchange commission), procedure to ensure responsible only to parliament, with the head (a resilience to government professional) appointed by parliament. Final change (e.g., the call responsibility should be on him. Constitutional Council Disaster managing authority should be approach followed by the PUCSL). Need to go beyond empowered to direct all resources in Accepted emergency. SEC, which is subject to interference by Ministry of Warning system and disaster management Finance. should be funded adequately through the government (perhaps through exclusive tax) Accepted Vajira Premawardhana, finance expert Indemnity is needed for people involved in the Partially Indemnity is particularly warning system, so they can exercise their accepted important for actions of duty without having to face consequences later private sector entities taken (law suits, etc.). Legislation needs to be in good faith. Whether public formulated. servants need additional Nishantha Kamaladasa, Director: Center for Housing protections is questionable. Planning and Building Disaster Management Bill (drafted in 2003) No longer The enactment of should be enacted and implemented. relevant with comprehensive legislation is Ramraj Narandram, D.R.M, UNDP Parliament outside the scope of the Should be amended and presented to taking up new report. It is noteworthy that Parliament again legislation the IESL recommendations have not been incorporated Vice President Institute of Engineers into the Bill and that warning is not included. Different models needed for different areas. Not Accepted Impractical. But there should Participant at Chambers of Commerce event be no monopoly on public warning. Ideally, community initiatives will be compatible with NEWS:SL Need to safeguard system from misuse, for Accepted e.g., by politicians; otherwise credibility will be at stake. Prasantha Fernando Experts can be held accountable for taking the Accepted final call, IF he (or she) is entrusted with a civil responsibility in the exercise of their professional authority. Examples of Japan and Mauritius demonstrated this, where the Director of Meteorology are empowered to issue warning without prior recourse or Concept Paper Annexes: NEWS:SL A3 Annex 1 approval from 'a politician'. Terry Jeggle, International Strategy for Disaster Reduction Need for an Interim Solution/System What temporary measures can be This is really the implemented until a permanent solution is responsibility of the present devised and implemented? government; the final Journalist